Hi ladies! Back from a trip down South to visit family. Glad to be back.

Had another routine check-up today and was roundly praised for gaining 3lbs since last check up. They still want me to gain 20 more by delivery, though. Kind of weird after a lifetime of rooting for the scale to go the other way. Scheduled the 18-week ultrasound for two weeks out -- yay! Very excited to see the Bean again. Heard the heartbeat again today, then went to Whole Foods to buy the umpteen snacks I need to be eating every 20 minutes, it seems.

ml -- I think they make something called "petals" to deal with the high-beam situation. Nicer lingerie places tend to carry them. And, yeah, that's an issue.

re: maternity -- I've said this before, but I really like Ann Taylor Loft for those of you who need to dress for work.

re: saddle-sore -- OK, OUCH. Since last week, I wrap up the day feeling a little like I took a four-hour Spin class and threw in some splits for good measure. Anyone else getting this? Any tips? My MD says it's perfectly normal, but hello, first real sign of Things to Come.

I'm way behind in reading all these posts (got sucked into diaper duty for a bit), but hi to all and I'm glad to read so many great updates!

Poppy - congrats on making the big announcement! I bet it is weird (in a good way) to have it in the open now. I felt the same way!

IPW - congrats on the great NT results. It was such a relief for DH and I when we got ours back.

AFM, I had my shower on Saturday and I have to say we couldn't have asked for a better day! Great food, friends and so many baby things! Talk about a lift to the spirits! Now I just need to figure out what else I need right away and get that covered. Things are coming up so quickly! The only bad thing that happened was one of my girlfriends has a stomach bug on Friday, likely caught from her daughter's daycare. She felt better on Saturday and came to the shower, but I guess she was still contageous. Four of us (including me) picked it up :( So that made for a miserable Monday! I was so worried about the baby, but just so you all know, stuff like that doesn't affect the baby - just your digestional tract. The only thing my doc told me was to try and drink plenty of fluids (so hard when it's coming out both ends!). And the only time they'd get concerned and have you come in for IV is if you couldn't keep anything down for 24 hrs. Maybe this was penance for never having had morning sickness? LOL. Well, I'm fine now eating some crackers today and baby seems to be moving normally :) I still need to make some chiropractor and accupuncture appointments to get the baby head down too! So much to do, so little time!

hi everyone, i had my 2nd ultrasound today... still twins, 2 heartbeats and the lengths on track for 8.5-ish weeks. so - doctor says it's pretty likely i will have twins at this point, and i'm graduating from the infertility department. i think it helped a little bit to see the little flicker heartbeats - starting to think of "them" less like alien blobs! :)

AFM, after a couple days of suspicion, I believe I can confirm that I have officially felt the Bean swooshing around in there, and that s/he likes burritos with hot sauce from Boloco. Or I have gas, but I'm pretty sure it's Baby Activity. Hurrah! DH is super-jealous, but I reminded him that he will retain his ability, post delivery, to sneeze without peeing, so I think this is an extremely fair trade-off.

Poppy-Congrats on reaching the telling people milestone. That is really one of the best parts. Everyone is so excited to hear the news and its nothing but good feelings all around.

Stefani-Nice to hear that you are moving from the infertility dept. and that the twins are in it for the long haul.

ML-GC is right. Petals will do the trick. There's also a brand that makes bras with concealers built in. I can't remember the brand. That's what I've been using (I always have the headlight problem) and its improved the situation greatly.

Trouble-I'm glad the shower went well. How far along are you? Aren't you almost at the finish line. It must be so exciting/anxiety provoking. I'm sorry to hear about the stomach bug and hope that you begin feeling markedly better soon.

IPW-Great news about the scan!

GC-How exciting that you're starting to feel the baby move. It definately feels like gas in the beginning and gets more pronounced over time. Also, you may feel more activity depending on what you eat. It definately helped me to feel more connected to what was happening.

Re: Maternity clothes. In terms of fit and price, I've had the most success with Destination Maternity. As someone else had mentioned, the quality isn't the greatest but it will do. I really like the GAP t-shirts but aren't a fan of their bottoms. My work dress code is fairly casual so I can get away with the GAP but the fit is all wrong. I've found it better to try the clothes on but there is a better selection on-line.

AFM, DH and I returned from our trip to Madrid. It was really nice. Defiiantely a challenge traveling in my 6th month and according to the nurse at my school, it will take about a week for my ankles to decrease the swelling. For the life of me, I could not figure out why I they were so swollen until I realize that the only bottled water was mineral water which has sodium. That coupled with the fact that we ate out for a week probably increased my fluid retention a bit. Other than that, I have my GTT tomorrow.

It's not everyone, but, um, leakage when sneezing [coughing, laughing, running] can be an unfortunate side effect of labor & delivery. I mean, not full-on wetting your pants. Just a little dribble here and there. Or so I'm told. Do those Kegels!!!

The Boloco burritos are so freaking good, I love them. I am also loving this new "mini" size, which is pretty much a normal burrito, just doesn't leave me feeling like I can Never Eat Again.

Trouble - I'm so glad to hear your shower went well! You were hosting, right? And had all sorts of out-of-town guests? I hope it ended up stress-free... um, except for the stomach bug, ugh. So sorry to hear about that.

Stefani - great news about your twins! speaking of twins, my girlfriend who has identical twin boys (naturally... no fertility) said fertility treatments cannot bring about identical twins - only fraternal. anyone know if that is true? not that i'm doubting her, but i had never heard that.

GC - that must be very cool, and also surreal! I can't wait for that moment, but will also probably assume it is gas since I've had pretty prolific gas for the past 12 weeks.

Nene - glad you had a great trip to Madrid! Sorry about the ankles, though. I know what you mean about the water - when we were in Italy it was impossible to find non-minerally enhanced water. Good luck with the GTT tomorrow.

AFM, I have my NT scan today. Not really feeling nervous... unless you count the nervousness of trying to hide my pregnancy from work while trying to finagle all of these doctor's appointments! Oh, and the sneezing/coughing/peeing? Yeah, that's already happening to me.

Identical twins occur when the fertilized egg splits in two, resulting in two genetically identical children.

Fraternal twins occur when 2 eggs are fertilized. This results in two children that are no more genetically similar than any other two siblings.

Many fertility treatments have an increased risk of ovulating more than once in a cycle, which then can result in fraternal twins (or more), depending on the number of eggs released and the number of those that are fertilized.

While someone undergoing fertility treatment COULD, in theory, ovulate once, and then that fertilized egg could split into two (or more), resulting in identical multiples, it's less common.

I saw a couple on the Today Show a couple years ago. They had undergone IVF and only had ONE embryo implanted because they absolutely positively didn't want to have multiples. Of course, once it was put back into the mother, it split THREE times--resulting in identical triplet boys. Can you imagine?!

GC - I should know that! I had a "petal emergency" at my wedding. I had a sheath dress and never thought to worry about padding. Well, the morning of the wedding it was quite a problem. My best friend made the ultimate sacrafice and gave me her Petals!

We make jokes over how that was my something borrowed. I think I still have them in my lingerie drawer, I'll have to find them.

stef, there's a natural kink in your urethra pre-delivery that helps stop the flow of urine when you cough or sneeze along with the muscles in the pelvic floor. Many women experience incontinence after delivery because that kink gets permanently straightened out. Keigals can help build up those muscles, though, and solve some (or all, hopefully) of the problem. They actually have vaginal weights you can "carry" around that get progressively heavier (I think they come in a set of 6) to strengthen that area.

Just in case you are trying to look up the exercises it is actually "kegel". There is a lot of pelvic floor relaxation after delivery and this causes a decline in pressure changes which makes leaking happen as well. Let's just all hope it won't happen!

GC - you crack me up. :)

We had our early risk u/s today. Everything looked fine. He/She was uncooperative so we had a lot of time to look at our little one!

Yesterday, I wore tight pants all day. That su*cked. Today is better but I am on the verge of wearing maternity and I am only 12 1/2 weeks. I was up 1 lb my first obs appt and still down from my pre-pregnancy physical. Where is all the belly coming from?? I hope some lbs are being removed from my thighs but I don't think so. :)

Lil - I just got back from my ERA too my little bean looks fine as well, according to the tech and the doctor. So that's good. Now will just wait for the bloodwork results...

re: Kegels... so, why, then, am I having this issue now at 12 weeks??!? My girlfriend said she started having it around 12 weeks as well (I have an email from her at that point saying, "Work those Kegel muscles EARLY!" Now I know why!). I had a chest cold for like 3 weeks and toward the end whenever I coughed it was like, "Oop! What just happened?!" Never before in my life has that happened to me.

Leakage can occur early on and throughout pregnancy due to hormonal changes. It's the same hormone (relaxin) that allows your ligaments to stretch. So for some people, all the kegels in the world won't cure the problem, but they won't hurt either.

Poppy - some women have leakage that is completely unrelated to pregnancy or delivery. It sounds like yours is pregnancy related, but figured I'd mention it!

Another fun fact about twins - only fraternal twins tend to run in families.DH's father has an identical twin so we've always joked about having twins, but my girlfriend who has identical twin boys mentioned they aren't hereditary (and then I looked it up).

Wow, seems like yesterday was the day for NT scans :). We had ours yesterday and everything looked great. I was a little ticked at the tech because she didn't show me anything. She started off saying she was only going to look and get some measurements and then show me, but it took her a while to get the LO to move into the right position and I think they were already backed up. She cleaned me up so quick and turned everything off I didn't get a chance to say anything. DH saw everything though, which was nice but then I think I was subconsciencely jealous of him for the rest of the day and was grumpy. We went out and looked at baby furniture afterward, so that was fun.

IPW, you b*tch -- you beat me!!! ;) I have the same risk factor of a 20yo. I hate you. But great news -- we got similar results and we too opted out of any future testing. My next ultrasound is a week from Monday; can't wait!

Antimony -- that's AWFUL. Where was this ultrasound done? I am bummed for you.

AFM, I think I cursed myself in the pee discussion, as after claiming dibs on the downstairs bathroom b/c I DESPERATELY had to pee, I sneezed about five feet from the promised land and, oh yeah, dribbled. DH is now calling me squirt. Charming.

Hormones play a key role in the strength of the muscles that control urine flow. It's why spayed female dogs usually become incontinent in their old age and is one reason we almost didn't spay our lab.

GC the ultrasound was done at Holy Family Hospital in Methuen (I live in Southern NH), in the maternal fetal medicine department to boot! I am really not all that keen on delivering at Holy Family at all, some friends have delivered up at 2 diff Hospital in Manchester that were awesome. Unfortunately my OB (who I LOVE and have been going to for over 9 years) only delivers at Holy Family, I guess it is a trade off. I will say though that we stopped by the nurses station in the maternity ward on our way out and all the nurses there at the time seemed super nice and even took the time to give us a last minute tour when they were pretty busy, so that made me feel a little better.

GC- Too funny about "squirt", fortunately I haven't had any issues like that... yet :)

Oh and LIL, I'm totally close to wearing maternity pants as well, actually I got a pair of capris last weekend and I have worn them twice. I definately have a belly, but weird thing is that I have only gained 1 pound. I think my weight is just redistributing. I weighed myself 3 weeks ago for the first time during pregnancy being scared that I had put on 10 pounds because of my belly, but at that point I hadn't gained anything. I'm blaming it on the fertility drugs.

Antimony - I am so glad to see you post today. I was thinking about you this morning and was hoping everything was ok b/c we have not heard from you. Great news!!I also have gained 1 lb. I am going maternity shopping today. I just can keep going like this. My dress pants are too tight and so are my jeans.

Squirt - we still love you and hope that you regain control soon. :)When I get my results I am hoping to hear I am the same risk of a 10 year old. haha

Sorry, GC, but I'm glad I'm not the only one!! Especially after Fram had me thinking I must just be incontinent! (LOL, Fram)

Antimony - Stinks you didn't get to see! Inconsiderate of the tech. They didn't give you any pics? Something similar happened with one of my girlfriend's - except the screen was positioned behind where she was lying, so she couldn't see! Talk about bad design!

IPW - What great news!! You and DH must be so thrilled (both for the baby, and for the fact that you are a virtual teenager).

Tomorrow am making the trek to Lady Grace as my bras are currently suffocating me.